NeoRealm – Staring Back Into the Future

While our party is celebrating their victory, we find a familiar group of wolfkin being released from the cities free clinic. The various flunkies are trying to kiss up to their boss when he interrupts them, “SHUT UP! I don’t know about the other two but that human beat us up good. Now not that I don’t want to go and beat them up but you're forgetting we had just tried to steal a quest boss. Likely that trio are the ones it was for so we need to be careful. If we had beat it, no problem but all it takes is for the guild to realize what we did to ruin us.”

“Yeah boss! We need to skip town, like pronto. Mama didn’t raise no fool.”

The boss glares at him, “Did I or did I not tell you to shut up? If we ‘skipped town’ then they know we did it. Plus it took us too long to find where to offload our more choice items. We can’t stop them from reporting so we need to contact some of those people to take care of them. No matter what proof they have on us, if the accusers aren’t around anymore nothing will happen. Biggest problem is that they seem to be Travellers. Though I know just the right group to take care of them but it will cost a bit.” and the scene fades away with the group laughing a little too loudly.

Back at our group we seem them having a bit more trouble returning than expected. Where before most rabbit groups would just run away, now they all seem to want a piece of our group. Luckily they took the time to rest up before setting off or they might be in trouble.

Jason is doing all right despite the rabbits speed. As they were just animals, it is easy for him to see when they will attack. The rest of the group isn’t doing to well though. Rosha is hanging in there as while she isn’t a martial artist she has focused on her agility. The glancing blows still hurt but it isn’t a horn to the gut. James however is experiencing exactly that a bit too much. If it wasn’t for his excellent dwarven made armor and shield he wouldn’t be long for this world.

Eventually though they get out of the forest though all of them are below half health. Attrition can be a hard opponent. When they reach the gates a few coins can be seen passing between a couple of the guards. It seems some money was riding on if they would make it back today. As they enter the town one of the guards who had been receiving money goes up to them and congratulates them on their victorious return. Rosha recognizes him as one of the guards that helped them clean up the wolfkin group. Seems he used a bit of inside information to make out quite well.

Upon reaching the Guild they find Andrew and Penny waiting for them. Walking towards them Andrew greets them, “Welcome back! We received the notification that you had gotten the flower. Congratulations on your first boss kill even if it was with a team.”

Penny follows up right behind him, “We heard you got into a little scuffle with the local knobs. Just as a warning they got out from the clinic a bit before you got back. They aren’t the type to take that lying down so be on the lookout. Anyway how did your quest go?”

The group glanced at each other and eventually Jason comes forward to regale them with their tale. He gets a bit nervous though when he describes how they found the boss. After telling Penny of the damage it had already suffered she puts on a very stern expression. Finally after finishing the tale Rosha comes forward with a couple questions, “So, what was up with the apparent regeneration the Amber Fox had that didn’t seem to do anything in the fight? Also why did everything seem to want our blood on the way back? If we hadn’t healed back up after the boss fight I don’t think we would have made our way to town in one piece.”

Penny looks a bit awkward, “So uh, it is kind of tradition to not tell people about that last one. It is meant to teach people to always stay alert and not carelessly traipse through a danger zone. Basically until you complete your first quest outside a city, the System has less powerful mob groups leave you alone. I hear long ago new Travellers didn’t aggro things unless they were actively aggressive but that was shut down quick. Too much abuse with people just wandering around death zones.”

Rosha nods, “Okay, so what's up with the regen.”

Penny sighs, “So, those wolfkin need a bit of punishment. You don’t fight regenerating enemies this early. They are rare even at level 20, let alone below 10. That wasn’t regeneration. That was the System correcting for outside interference in your quest. The clearing you found is basically THE place to do your first quest in the forest. It has got to where the System doesn’t even bother fixing the terrain damage.”

Andrew interrupts her at this point, “Long story short, those wolfkin messed with your fox boss and the system was trying to heal it before you got there. Now Penny there has a whole mess of work that needs to be done and you three aren’t allowed to leave town for a few days.”

Penny glares at him, “Yes that is the short of it. Anyway as you didn’t know, if you mess with a beginner quest like they apparently did the Guild gets a bit huffy. More specifically, they expel you and spread it around to not do business with you. Even Traveller organizations follow them on this so it cuts you off from the civilized world. Anyway don’t worry about randomly messing with a newbie quest. The boss won’t aggro unless you attack it and a warning pops up. This of course mean they have no excuse and are probably the source of a few other similar situations we have had recently. I don’t care how big pappa wolf is, that snobbish son of his is going to burn.”

“So why do we have to hang around town for a bit? We made a team so hitting the forest again for a bit of adventure seemed like a good idea.”

Penny give Jason an apologetic look, “Well we need you three as witnesses. This isn’t the first time that mutt has gotten in trouble but never on something this big. We want to get each of you to tell your story again before a judge while under a truth spell. With that we can finally get through his diplomatic immunity and question him with a truth spell as well. That stupid wolfkin has gotten out of way too many tight situations by having witnesses disappear and dodging truth spells under the guise of national secrets potentially being spilled.”

James grimaces at that, “So we need to dodge kidnappers for 3 or so days?”

Andrews shrugs, “Eh, life happens. You could always hideout in my tower for a while or stay in your own world. However I doubt that will suit you three. After all the System has a nifty quest it wants me to give you. Ahem, ‘Brave Adventurers. While danger stalks you from the shadows let not this threat cause your path to falter. I have for you three a message in need of delivery. Please deliver this to the towns Guard Captain.’ Don’t look down on this quest though. I really do have a message to deliver. Nevermind that I likely would have sent it in a much securer method that would have likely arrived quicker. The important thing for you guys is that it is actually a chain quest. The System seems to want to test your mettle a bit so you’re going to be spending the next couple days wandering around the town with a flashing ‘gank me’ sign on your backs. Have fun!”

“Wait a second there! What about our dang reward for the last quest? You know the only reason we ended up traipsing through the woods in the first place? Here’s your damn flower.” and Jason tosses the Blood bloom at Andrew.

Akhier

Things I wanted to mention but didn’t:

Quest difficulty is basically nonsense. It does have keywords like ‘Chain’ and ‘Tutorial’ to tell you some of what to expect. However the System long ago realized that what might be an F difficulty quest for one Warrior might be S for another. Now it mostly uses that section of quests to troll people and point out when things are really bad. Sort of the good ol’ DM’s “Are you Sure about that?” for the digital age. Oddly enough not many people have ever realized this. In the first place quests tend not to be shared around to protect a person's secrets. Combined with how despite what the MC is experiencing right now, quests from the System are quite rare means most people never see enough quest panels to figure it out. Even the big organizations aren’t sure about it. Andrew probably knows, “but then that would be telling”.